Cold weather beginning to set in

Ottawacker Jr. had spent the night over at his friend Lucas’s place, a four-boy sleepover as offered by his parents who are teachers. (There is a certain level of insanity in every profession, and I think these two might just have reached it.) As such, he wasn’t yet home when Mitch called to say he was coming over with croissants.
 
It was good to see him, even if he sounded sicker than a 115er fan, and we had a good catch up. I was then faced with the mother of all conundrums. Ottawacker Jr. had been called on to replace a keeper in the Tier 2 side of the U13 age group. This meant a significant drop in ability in the team he’d be playing for… not that that was the conundrum. The conundrum was, do I go and watch him have goalkeeping practice, conceding a dozen goals, and not having much fun – or do I stay at home and watch the Liverpool vs. 115ers game? I’ll admit to a certain amount of conflict, but in the end, I went to watch the boy play, and felt good about the decision, and actually enjoyed it. His team lost 3-0 against a good side and he had a good game.
 
Home, justified in my role as parent, to watch the Liverpool game. I’d followed it loosely while watching Ottawacker Jr.’s match, and knew the result: so, I was able to sit back and relax. I’ve said a few times that I am not a huge fan of how we are playing – well, I think that might be changing. I’m not sure we’ll ever win by more than two goals, but we seem to have the capacity to raise our game to just above the level of whatever opposition we face. This, I think, is pretty impressive. And long may it last. Barney Ronay of the Guardian wrote a brilliant piece about Virgil van Dijk, which is worth a read.
 
We were all tired today, Mrs. Ottawacker has been working her socks off, Ottawacker Jr. had stayed up till God-knows-what-time the previous evening, and I have been fighting something (lethargy mostly) since I got back. We had a quiet afternoon, an early dinner, and were all in bed by 9.